Welcome to Better Know An Umpire, an effort to educate ourselves on the human elements who have ultimate decision-making power over some 2,500 Major League Baseball games a year. (All cumulative statistics are through the 2011 season, unless otherwise stated.)

Bellino's 2010 statistics put his strike zone squarely in the middle. His BB/9 was half a percent lower than average and his K/9 was half a percent above average, making his K/BB a scant one percent above average. His R/9 was four percent higher than average, somewhat anomalous in that his slash stats weren't that far from the norm.

Apparently age has nothing to do with maturity. The call was made without thinking, and Pellino had no answer for why he came to such a quick decision. He was clearly just nervous and that's all he could do to get himself out. Either way, get this clown out of here, its bad enough with the umpires the MLB already has.

A few started referring to me on the field as "counselor." It's funny and all that, but I say, "Do me a favor: Call me Dan." They all want to know what I'm doing here. Wouldn't I be making so much more money doing other things. "The answer is always the same: "Yeah, probably. But I wouldn't love it as much."